The details of a military rescue by Zoram, chief captain of the Nephite armies, provide another means for triangulating the flow of the river Sidon in a southwest direction from the city of Zarahemla. “In the eleventh year of the reign of the judges … the armies of the Lamanites had come in upon the wilderness side, into the borders of the land, even into the city of Ammonihah, and began to slay the people and destroy the city” (Alma 16:1–2). And “before the Nephites could raise a sufficient army to drive them out of the land, they had destroyed the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, and also some around the borders of Noah, and taken others captive into the wilderness” (Alma 16:3). Zoram, “chief captain over the armies of the Nephites,” and his two sons, “knowing that Alma was high priest over the church, and having heard that he had the spirit of prophecy, therefore they went unto him [in the city of Zarahemla] and desired of him to know whither [where] the Lord would that they should go into the wilderness in search of their brethren, who had been taken captive by the Lamanites” (Alma 16:5; see also, Alma 15:18–19; 16:1). Here is Alma’s description of the intended Lamanite crossing of the river Sidon, beyond the borders of the land of Manti, before continuing into the south wilderness with their Nephite captives:

To reach the south wilderness “on the east of the river Sidon,” the Lamanites coming from the city of Ammonihah and the borders of Noah to the northwest of the land of Zarahemla (Alma 8:3, 6), understandably avoided the major Nephite lands of Zarahemla and Manti by crossing the river Sidon in the south wilderness which is “away up beyond the borders of the land of Manti.” While the Lamanites were traveling south along the west side of the land of Zarahemla with their Nephite captives, they crossed the river Sidon into the south wilderness at a location “away up beyond the borders of the land of Manti” (Alma 16:6; see also, Textual Antecedence, below). By implication these statements strongly suggest the river Sidon at this crossing point is to the south and probably to the southwest of the land of Manti, which is the most southern land controlled by the Nephites.

It is important to note there is only one wilderness—the “narrow strip of wilderness”—between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi to the far south (Alma 22:27). This extensive wilderness was also known as the “south wilderness,” its relative direction from the land of Zarahemla. This narrow strip of wilderness (or south wilderness), “which ran from the sea east even to the sea west,” (Alma 22:27) would have forced the flow of any river towards one of these two seas. Because the Lamanites crossed the river Sidon fromthe west side of the land it could be presumed the river which they passed over would continue on and empty into the closest sea, the sea west.

This presumption is verified in the next verse (Alma 16:7) which describes the route Zoram and his army followed to rescue their brethren in the south wilderness, after leaving Alma in the city of Zarahemla (Alma 15:18). Note verses six and seven (Alma 16:6–7) describe two different routes into the south wilderness—the one taken by the Lamanites with their Nephite captives and the one traveled by Zoram with his rescuing army:

In the south wilderness, on the east side of the river Sidon, Zoram’s army “came upon the armies of the Lamanites, and the Lamanites were scattered and driven into the wilderness; and they took their brethren who had been taken captive by the Lamanites, and there was not one soul of them had been lost that were taken captive” (Alma 16:8).

To accomplish this successful mission, Zoram, coming from the west of the river Sidon in the city of Zarahemla, first crossed “over the river Sidon, with [his] armies,” and then “marched away beyond the border of Manti into the south wilderness, which was on the east side of the river Sidon,” where they rescued their Nephite brethren (Alma 16:7).

In this account of Zoram’s military foray, Mormon describes the relationship of the river Sidon to the south wilderness by clearly stating the “south wilderness ... was on the east side of the river Sidon” (Alma 16:7; see also, Textual Antecedence, below). The reverse is also true: the river Sidon is on the west of the south wilderness. Knowing the river Sidon flows by the city of Zarahemla, which is the “center of the land” (Hel. 1:27), and the river Sidon is on the west of the south wilderness, which wilderness extends to the sea west, the river Sidon can only flow in a southwest direction away from the city of Zarahemla. This also implies the head (source) of the river Sidon was north of the city of Zarahemla and north of the land of Manti, which was south of the city of Zarahemla.